Let’s assume that you have spent your last few hours of research on understanding Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) hosting, This is probably why you’re here reading about SaaS Application Hosting, hoping to achieve an optimum efficiency level for your business.
You have by now, also understood that products and services using SaaS hosting play the part of giving mobility to customers so they can use that service with ease regardless of the platform.
Why evaluate hosting options for your SaaS?
The type of hosting and the provider you chose can make or break your SaaS business as the performance of your application is very much dependent on its hosting. Therefore, you must first figure out the requirements of your hosting needs. The metric you’re looking for here is cost-to-performance-ratio.
Another crucial metric you’re looking for is the cost of scaling your server in order to cater to larger traffic flow. The web app’s storage space itself is a matter of concern when selecting a SaaS hosting service.
Tertiary priority options should entail the SaaS hosting server’s support team, as this service is most likely to run parallel to your business timeline. It’s important to collaborate with a representative in order to provide feedback and not go through the troubleshooting channel yourself. This not only saves time, but also helps the hosting provider improve their service.
What are the options out there?
When choosing SaaS hosting service provider, it’s important to know the type of services available. A simple search can go a long way in this regard, however, we’ve put in a few popular types to help you get started.
Dedicated, Shared, and Cloud Hosting
A dedicated server offers the allocation of the entire computing space to the business which means that you are the only user hosted on the server. But dedicated hosting is a costly option when it comes to installation and maintenance of servers.
While on a shared server, a business website will have to share the space, and additional space will require further investment on part of the business. It means that if you choose shared hosting, then you will have to share server(s) with other anonymous users.
Shared hosting is a cheap option, but its major drawback is that it is less secure as compared to dedicated and cloud servers.
Cloud Hosting is an option for businesses that wish to deploy their web applications without incurring a phenomenal cost. Server management can become a challenging task, as it takes up resources and time. Hence, many businesses now prefer subscribing to a managed cloud hosting service.
Cloud hosting infrastructures comprise of high-tier options such as Google Compute Engine, Amazon Web Services which cater to larger web traffic requirements. The budget-friendly option in this regard comprises of Linode, DigitalOcean, and Vultr.
Here, the technical team can outsource the tasks related to server security and storage management, and focus on more business-centric tasks. The team can now focus on improving user experience and user interface of the web app that is under development.
Another option with reference to cloud hosting is to opt for managed cloud hosting platform. These platform providers are more commonly known as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) where businesses can install web apps, software and hardware on an online dashboard.
Startups and smaller businesses prefer using a managed hosting service due to their budget constraints. Here, the PaaS provider supports the business owner with technical server related assistance. Therefore, the development team can put their focus, time, and effort on streamlining other important tasks as opposed to managing the server.
Why Choose Managed Cloud-hosting?
The option of subscribing to a managed cloud hosting platform appears to be an overall attractive package for most business owners. Here, the hosting platform is often 3rd party, that also facilitates integration support with some of the top infrastructure service providers.
More often than not, these PaaS solutions provide an entire package to help businesses run their website(s) without spending too much time getting involved in resolving server related problems. These are some of the globally popular infrastructures. Hence server downtime is a very rare occurrence.
Options like Cloudways are best for businesses that are in the initial stages of their life cycle. Not only is there a technical support team available round-the-clock, but you also get timely updates to the web-apps and make a website. Moreover, server compatibility across web apps is a breeze with this type of hosting services.
Your Business Requirements
It’s important to know the business requirements one has before opting for a SaaS hosting provider. Most of the time, they offer bundled products with an attractive discount. The real win here, however, is the pre-holiday season discounts and bundles.
Things to Consider
- Cost Saving
- Innovation
- Technical Support
- Security
- Productivity
- Collaboration
- Feedback
It’s important to take into consideration the holistic picture when selecting the SaaS hosting provider for your business. Costing also goes a long way, when considering storage capacity, bundled benefits, and technological innovation. The whole reason for the boom of SaaS products is the advantage of cost-saving, in terms of remotely accessing resources.
Most SaaS products already provide features that help in collaboration and productivity. The web apps used for this should be under consideration as that’s what will make the difference when the business starts to scale.
Furthermore, your hosting provider should focus on innovating its product for its customers and should be an active practitioner of taking customer feedback to improve the quality of service.
Taking surveys, interviews and simply engaging with current customers brings in clarity towards the type of changes the SaaS needs to retain customers. Since you’re subscribing to the SaaS hosting provider, it’s important to know if they take in customer feedback and adapt the UI and UX accordingly.
Technical support and security considerations are two factors that are always a top priority of the business owner when the organization decides to outsource the tasks. The level of security and how easily accessible is the technical team of the SaaS product, are factors that sustain customers in the long run.
In a nutshell
The sign of success is when the SaaS hosting provider works parallel to your business and maintains a certain level of the business relationship. Furthermore, it’s also important to know the features provided with the SaaS products are usable by your business otherwise these features are dead weight to the costs.
Now that you have the choice of selecting a suitable SaaS hosting provider, you can focus more on the operational side of your business. Let your developers put on the server management and SaaS collaboration thinking hats to resolve problems.
